NXNE Film Review - Diamond Tongues

The daily struggles of unnamed film extras who's names appear towards the end of film credits or not at all are the focus of directors Pavan  Moondi and Brian Robertson's film Diamond Tongues. The Actors, writers, producer/directors take public transit or walk to auditions, meet with their agents and talk up projects that they are in, badmouth the ones that are not and through around industry buzz words like sides and reel as they meet each other on the street, small time industry events or in local bars. The films central character Edith Welland (Leah Goldstein) first appears on screen out front of a building as the film crew packs away equipment at the end of a shoot. She talks about how the cast and crew of this film were like family but the crew have no idea that she was in the production then Edith proudly explains that she played the Angry Customer. 

Edith best friend Nick (Nick Flanagan) is working on the second most popular Canadian television show Dog Husband that has just been picked up for another year. As they are in conversation Edith immediately begins to tear down the show talking about how dumb the title is starting the theme of undercutting that is prevalent throughout the film.  Being a poor struggling actor means you need a roommate to share the bills.  Edith's is Clare (Leah Wildman) a fellow actor who is running lines for a play that's about to open Happier for All of Us.  Our protagonist is vocally supportive of her room mate but from her facial expressions its clear she is hoping that the play fails. The last main piece of Edith's world is her attempt to cope with the recent break up with her boyfriend of 2 years Ben played by the film's writer Adam Gurfinkel. Edith called off the relationship to focus on her career but she constantly talks about him, fellow actors she meets in her travels ask how he's doing putting his presence always near the top of mind.

Garfunkel crafts an offbeat script for this film.  It is obvious that he is very familiar with this world all the way to the sleazy older Acting School teacher that is willing to waive the exorbitant fee for a
a cute actress that will pay him a little extra attention. The dialogue between the actors is very believable. The viewer would think that an actor would do whatever they could to promote themselves and sell their brand. While on the other hand outwardly wishing fellow colleagues the best but hoping that they do not succeed. However Edith takes the second part of this scenario to a special place.  She gives colleagues projects 1 star on IMDB logging in nightly before she goes to bed. She tears down posters of her roommates play as she encounters them on utility poles around the city. She shows up at auditions as a not successful call back, hangs around the receptionist picks a name that was not crossed out and says that she is that person back for her second read. Making her clearly a candidate for the most unlikeable lead character of the year.

Leah Goldstein grows on you in the role of Edith.  Her uneven deliver of the lines and search for tonal range early in the film takes some getting used to but Goldstein shines with her non verbal expressions as she uses these traits to project her true feelings of colleagues successes and projects while on the surface she is smiling, nodding and appearing to be supportive.  Nick Flanagan plays the other large role as Edith's best friend Nick. Flanagan hurls the insults back and forth with Edith and at one point remarks that they are only friends because no one else would be friends with either of them.

Diamond Tongues is a unique take on a mundane, small, destined for failure community who in many instances have to take other jobs to keep their acting careers alive. The production shows this world at its raw cutthroat lowest with no expectation of a feel good redemption at the end of the journey.  It is a film I can recommend

*** Out of 4

Diamond Tongues | Pavan Moondi / Brian Robertson | Canada | 2015 | 100 Minutes.

Tags: Auditions, Extra, Play, Roommate, Agent, Writer/Producer, Toronto, Public Transportation, Ex-Boyfriend.

Fox Searchlight Film Review - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is an outsider in high school that has figured out a system to get though to higher education. He does not join any of the cliques but will engage members of the various high school cliques jumping in on short conversations to orbit on the perimeter of every group.  The only place he does not venture is the cafeteria Greg calls it a war zone, chaos and the waring factions of the Middle East all rolled up into one. Greg spends his lunch hour in the office of his favourite teacher Mr. McCarthy (Jim Bernthal) along with his "co-worker" Earl Jackson (RJ Cyler) who is really his best friend but Greg does not want to admit that he has any friends.

Greg's detached high school life is going well until his mother (Connie Britton) sends him to visit Rachel (Olivia Cooke) a friend he was closer to in grade school who has just been diagnosed with advanced cancer. Greg goes reluctant at first but begins to enjoy the time he spends hanging out with Rachel. Greg and Earl make parody films and though encouragement of popular girl  Madison (Katherine C. Hughes) start to make a film for Rachel.

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon film based on Jesse Andrew's book and screenplay finds a new angle to tell a high school based tale. The subject matter is dire as evidence by the title but the dialogue is rich and the characters well developed to bring humour tenderness tension and sorrow to the production. Gomez- Rejon keeps the camera moving to produce several different visual levels to the film. On particularly highly charged scene is shot from a very low angle with one character in the foreground while the other stands behind. Another where Rachel, Greg and Earl go for ice cream is one of the lighter passages in the film and shot totally opposite employing a crane from up on high.

The film has a couple of running gags that work well.  The first is Greg narration of the proceeding overt opening each new chapter with This is the part where... One might think that this could get annoying or tiresome but it really works mainly due to Greg's understated flat and somewhat perpetually uninterested tone. The other are the Greg and Earl mini movies. They are mainly knock off of classic cinema in the style of European documentary that Greg's dad (Nick Offerman) introduced pair to in their youth. The films with titles like A Sockwork Orange, My Dinner with Andre the Giant and 2:48 Cowboy (Instead of Midnight) are laugh out loud funny just on the titles alone but the bonus of seeing Greg and Earl dressed up as these iconic screen characters adds to the hilarity. Other titles in the collected works include Grumpy Cul-de Sacs a send up of Gomez- Rejon's mentor Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Senior Citizen Kane. The shorts are shown as little snippets sprinkled thought the film.

Casting director Angela Demo helped gather a strong ensemble cast. Connie Britton and Molly Shannon both take the non traditional approach to the their roles as mothers of Greg and Rachel respectively. Thomas Mann shines in the role of Greg. He is the central focus of the film and maintains the detached uninvolved persona through most of the production but shifts gears seamlessly for two key emotional encounters with each of the other title characters. RT Cyler makes his major screen debut as Earl. At the outset his character seems to be nothing out of the ordinary until he makes the point of showing Greg the importance of his relationship with Rachel. British Actress Olivia Clark know for her work on Bates Motel makes brings an edge to the role of the seriously ill high school student.  Clark is at her strongest when she makes a stand on how she wants to handle her treatment. Jim Berthal continues his streak of very strong roes as Greg and Earl's favourite teacher Mr. Murphy ending most classes and encounters with students in the halls with the mantra Respect the Research.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a high school film with a strong emotional side. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon draws out solid performances from his cast and the screenplay allows several light and funny moments despite the inherent sad and draining storyline the viewer will expect given the title. The interaction between the characters and quirks of the plot make the production a film that will appeal to kids and adults alike. It is a film that I can recommend.

*** 1/2 Out of 4

Me and earl and the Dying Girl | Alfonso Gomez- Rejon | U.S.A. | 2015| 105 Minutes.

Tags: High School , Cliques,  Fitting In, Survival, Cancer, Friendship, Cafeteria, Francesca, Mini-Movie.

Film Review - Spy

The film opens with MI6 type agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) at a high end cocktail party in search of his target.  He finds the mark Tihomir Boyanov (Raad Rawi) in the basement of the home and confronts him. The exchange begins as it would in any other spy movie then hits the first twist of the film that puts Fine in a bind needing to escape directed by his trusty Desk Analyst Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) back in the vermin infested basement at Langley. Soon the mission is revealed: find the nuclear bomb that was in the possession of Boyanov and stop one of his two underbosses his daughter Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) or Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) from selling it on the open market.  The next twist: Boyanov's group knows that the C.I.A. are coming and have the names and faces of all of the key agents. They therefore need someone with knowledge of the case, classification and the training background to take on the mission. Susan Cooper steps forward to fill the role.

Director Paul Feig teams up with Melissa McCarthy on their third outing with Spy following box office success with Bridesmaids and The Heat. The film is written and directed by Feig who once again shows that comedy which is tougher to do than many expect is a genre that fits his sweet spot. The film has several laugh out loud moments plus even more scenes where the audience does not know if they should laugh, groan or be mildly offended. The script has several sleek hand to hand combat scenes, shootouts plus a new angle on the action film car chase. The sound department contributed greatly to the production which is key in a good action film.

Assistant C.I.A. Director Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) sends Cooper on the mission but has a habit of giving her loser undercover identities. A single mother of 4 in Paris, a Mary Kay sales wiz with 10 cats in Rome. All identities are accompanied by the obligatory bad wardrobe and even worse wig. Even the gadget scene finds Cooper assigned with inglorious weapons  hidden in pills, ointments and wraps for bodily ailments.  But once in the field Cooper's instincts are solid and she is effective despite being opposed by over the way over the top tough guy agent Rick Ford (Jason Stratham) who has gone rogue in an attempt to track down the bomb himself and expects Cooper to screw up the mission at every turn.

Melissa McCarthy shows off her full comedic range in the film. At the outset of the film she's an intelligent, quick thinking Desk Analyst deftly supporting Agent Bradley Fine. In her personal life she's meek, lacks confidence and has been taught for years by friends and family to blend into the background and to give up on her hopes and dreams. However as she gains her footing in the field she proves to be an asset to the agency highly competent in fighting, shooting, assertiveness, vehicle skills and hyper aggressive when the moment demands. In one sequence she actually makes the henchman of one of her targets cry following a verbal assault. Rose Byrne does her best and is almost successful in stealing the film as the daughter and underboss of the Boyanov organization. She taunts the C.I.A. acts like a royal central european princess and cannot remember anyones name within a second of learning it or of someone that has worked for her family for years. Jason Stratham is also strong as the testosterone driven Rick Ford. He has been in every dangerous situation at least twice and flourished every time. His macho act is on full display as he describes how he knows that he is immune to 27 different types of poison haven taken them all at once with no ill effect. Look for Miranda Hart, Chummy from Call the Midwife in a memorable supporting role as Nancy B. Artingstall Susan Cooper's best friend, confidant and Desk Analyst once she enters the field.

Paul Feig continues to show that he is the leading comedic director working today with Spy. The film is a solid mix of comedy and action. The entire cast is pleasing with many taking their first real shot at comedy trusting the Feig McCarthy combination. The story has the right amount of turns and surprises that would put it in line with any good spy tale. It's a film that will appeal to a wide audience and one that I can recommend.

*** 1/2 Out of Four.

Spy | Paul Feig | 2015 | U.S.A. | 120 Minutes.

Tags: Espionage, C.I.A., Alias, Nuclear Bomb, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Field Agent, C.I.A. Desk Analyst, 50 Cent.

Film Review - Mad Max: Fury Road

Manic is the best word to describe the opening scenes of Mad Max: Fury Road. The film opens with Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) standing on top of a sand dune beside his car staring off into the sand filled wasteland. He gives a bit of history remaking that he was a cop in the past and constantly hears and sees the loved ones that he couldn't save in the new dyspotic world. His only instinct is survival. Then right on cue he's captured and taken to the Citadel a gigantic chunk of rock ruled by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays- Byrne) Who is worshipped like a god by the rabble that stand at the base of the mountain waiting for Joe to turn on the taps for a brief moment to provide a few mouthfuls of fresh water dubbed Aqua Cola. Joe also has 5 wives that he breeds and an army of war boys to do his bidding.  All hoping for a glance from Joe, their name to be called or to driver one of the welded together Franken vehicles, die in honour and head shiny and chrome into Valhalla to be born again.

Max enters this world to be used as a blood bank for sick war boys once the hive discover that he is a universal donor. After a failed escape which is the first of the films very satisfying series of action sequences he is hauled out into the field to supply plasma to Nux (Nicholas Hoult) a  recovering War boy driver who does not want to give up his steering wheel and miss the pursuit of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who has gone rogue kidnapped the wives with the aim to bring them to freedom and safety away from Joe.

Director George Miller slips easily back into the world that he created and presented in three times before prior starting with 1979's Mad Max, the consensus best of the series 1981's The Road Warrior and 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It's a rare feat but Miller has outdone the prior three films with the fourth outing. Visual stimulation is everywhere as Max and Furiosa are thrown together with the wives and chased along Fury Road from the Citadel east to the Salt fields and back. The chasers are armed with a vehicle full of rhythmic drummers.  A jumpy double axe guitarist cranking out power chords with flames flying out of the end of his weapon. Plus pole acrobats that bend towards and away from Furiosa's War Rig snatching at the wives or dropping projectiles with every pass.

Tom Hardy brings a different feel to the Mad Max character. He is a man of very few words and uses his eyes as his main tool of communication when he does not have a gun barrel to emphasis his gestures. Max is always on the look out for his best option to survive. Anyone can be friend or foe depending on the current predictament.  Charlize Theron is every bit's Max's equal if not more integral to the film as Furiosa. She is an expert shot as demonstrated in a desperate exchange with a pursuer. When the group are down to their last shot Max hands the gun to Furiosa to take it. She is willing to make deals to help with the escape but is always weary of her partners. It's very clear when Furosia is ready for serious action as she spreads black grease paint across her forehead and exercises her mechanical left hand. The other standout character is Nicholas Hoult as Nux. First loyal to a fault to Immortan Joe, Nux switches sides after a slight from Joe and comforting talk from one of the wives. He becomes helpful to the rebels using his driving skills. He is fearless in battle aided by his steadfast belief that if he dies in battle he will go to Valhalla to be born again and return. He is the prototypical war boy teetering towards death, spraying silver spray pain over is lips and mouth in battle to look shiny and chrome.

George Miller has crafted an excellent action film featuring a simple and symmetrical plot.  The production is wall to wall action with just the right amount of a dialogue driven moments mixed in. Mad Max: Fury Road is the epitome of a summer block buster.  It is a film that I can highly recommend.

**** Out of 4
 
Mad Max : Fury Road | George Miller | Australia / U.S.A. | 2015 | 120 Minutes.

Tags: Post Apocalypse, Wasteland,  Captured, Breeding, Revenge, Welded, Water, Gasoline, Rock, Sand, Green Place, Hope.

HotDocs 2015 Film Review - Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.

As happens often with documentaries Director Nick Beradini had a different story in mind when he first went to TASER International to interview Senior Executive Steve Tuttle. Beradini planned to do a story on one taser incident but as he gathered more information he decided to do the feature on the Taser itself, the stance of the company leaders that it saves lives and the cases of serious injury or death that have occurred.

Beradini begins the story with Taser founder Jack Cover who was inspired by a space story that he read as a child Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle. The theory being using a stun gun instead of live bullets would be a better option in most cases. The film opens with Cover testing on Bison's then jumps ahead a few years to when Patrick and Tom Smith decide to buy Cover's patent. The Smith brothers early testing showed the device did not have enough stopping power. This changed with the decision to up the wattage 50,000 volts. The brothers invited law enforcement departments to bring their toughest guys to their offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and they were all stopped cold by the new improved Taser device.

Beradini speaks to the employees at Taser, lawyers who have brought suits against the company doctors and academics on both sides of the safety debate. Detractors point to the limited charge times in the testing vs. the extended multiple applications in the field. The devices can cause extreme lactic acid build and put the target into cardiac arrest either of which could lead to death. The film also points out that the company knew of the link to cardiac arrest as far back as 2006 but did not inform their law enforcement partners.

The most compelling part of the piece is the depositions taken from the brothers and Senior VP Steve Tuttle for one of the lawsuits. The executives appear to be almost blind to the fact that their device could cause any harm at all. CEO Patrick Smith often points to the founding reason for the company to save lives repeating his founding story of two friends that had died during road raid incident that could have been avoided if Tasers had existed. They cling to their saving lives argument pointing to the fact that they are used by 17,000 law enforcement agencies in 107 countries. Even their website features a counter of human lives the device has saved.  The other is the Robert Dziekanski case at the Vancouver Airport. The Polish immigrant was confused, disoriented and ended up dead after being Tasered by the RCMP.  The Smiths attended the Braidwood inquiry in Vancouver and continued their practice to deflect the death to the victims themselves. Proclaiming as they have in all 300 death cases that the victim would have died due to other underlying health problems if the taser was not used. A favourite reference is to the cases of athletes who die during an event due to previously unknown health reasons.

Beradini stays mostly down the middle of the road during the piece. He does point out that of all the suits that were brought against the company they have only lost one and that original verdict was greatly reduced on appeal. The company did begin to advise law enforcement agencies that they should stop aiming for the chest not for safety reasons but instead for risk management. Taser International also pledge to defend the agencies that use their device but they failed to do so for the Warren Michigan police service after the death of a teen who in turn stopped using the devices. Beradini also touches on the lack of outside training options, no regulation on the devices or the necessary medical training needed in the field to recognize the signs of excessive lactic acid build up or  the onset of cardiac arrest as in the heart wrenching case of 23 year old Stanley Harlan the original case that Beradini wanted to investigate who's slow motion death from multiple tasers following a traffic stop across the street from his home is caught on police dash cam as his mother watched the events unfold.

*** 1/2 out of 4

Tom Swift and His Electric Rife | Nick Beradini | U.S.A. | 2015 | 100 Minutes.

Tags: Jack Cover,  TASER, X26, Cardiac Arrest, Braidwood Inquiry, Law Suit, Moberly Police Department.

HotDocs 2015 Film Review - Best of Enemies

In 1968 ABC was clearly the third rated American network.  They had little money and faced with covering both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in Miami and Chicago respectively.  While NBC and CBS were planning elaborate gavel to gavel coverage ABC could only afford a short prime time show each night and needed a hook to get some viewers. They decided to get one voice from the right and another from the left. Both educated, opinionated and strong orators of the English language to debar the issues of the conventions. 5 shows in Miami followed by 5 in Chicago.  The obvious choice from the left was William F. Buckley. Buckley was conservative, right wing, Libertarian and Christian. He was editor of the national review. Buckley accepted the invitation stating that he would debate annoy from the left expect for one person who he called the devil Gore Vidal so that's who ABC chose to oppose him.

If Buckley was the poster boy for Conservatism, Vidal was his foil; an author wrote books featuring homosexuals as normal members in society in the 50's.  He wrote the screenplay for Ben Hur. His current project at the time Myra Breckenridge he story of a man playing a woman playing a man was the smash hit. ABC news director Howard K. Smith had his two commentators for the debate.

The debates at the Republican convention in Miami established each man's position. Vidal took shots at the National Review while Buckley fired back at Myra Breckenridge a book he had not yet read. Vidal spoke to the rights of the poor, the adversaries debated the merits of the Vietnam war and the merits of Buckley's interview show Firing Line on PBS when he said among other controversial things to Mohammad Ali that the Muslim religion is a disease of the mind. Buckley tried to pin down Vidal's sexual preferences but his combatant responded that he shed sexuality labels. Vidal's crushing final blow: the Republicans were Right Wing, Greedy, Nazi Fascists who hid all of their ant-social activities behind the catch phrase of Law and Order.

A week later he scene shifted to the Democrats in Chicago that turned into a police state for the convention. The state of the city and the subsequent riots became a major topic of the debates. Vidal went out into the streets with actor Paul Newman and author Arthur Miller reporting on the state of the city in the next nights debate. Buckley's opening salvo was that he had read Myra Breckenridge and didn't like it.  Vidal spoke of the city being like a soviet regime littered with agent provocateurs in the crowd. Buckley responded that he was surprised at how much restraint the police showed. Then on the topic of Vietnam called opponents of the war Nazi appeasers. Vidal volleyed back calling Buckley a crypto Nazi at which point Buckley completely lost his cool on air. He called Vidal a Queer told him to quit calling him a crypto-Nazi or he'd sock Vidal in the goddamm face and he'll stay plastered. The minute the words left his mouth he knew he has lost the debates plus he saw the satisfied smile on Vidal's face at the end of the outburst.

Directors Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville do a masterful job of revealing the back story of both men. Mixing in their academic records, family backgrounds, likes and haunts and future conflicts after the debates ended. ABC won big in the ratings and these debates were the start of the left/right formula that is still used today as commentators scream at each other on Fox News and other programs. The documentary is an enthralling political commentary and a film and piece of history that I highly recommend.

**** Out of Four

Best of Enemies | Robert Gordon / Morgan Neville | U.S.A. | 2015 | 87 Minutes.

Tags: 1968 National Conventions,  ABC News,  Left vs Right, Conservative, Liberal, National Review, Myra Breckenridge.

HotDocs 2015 Film Review - Seth's Dominion

Seth (Gregory Gallant) spends a lot of time in his head. He writes a comic strip called Palookaville plus has many other outlets to fill his creative mind. Seth is the epitome of quirky from the nature of his perfusion being alone for most of the day to his every present hat and spectacles. He prefers the term Cartoon Strip to Graphic Novel seeing the genre as the perfect venue to tell mundane in interior stories as opposed to grandiose adventures.

Director Luc Chamerland uses a combination of interviews and NFB short files to present the story. The story was crafted between 2006-2013 during a series of interviews with Seth. The cartoonist stories are about his life. His childhood accounts focus on the writer's strong affection for his mother. He speaks of her laughter in another part of his house when he was writing his comics as a child. He laments his decision as a big boy to not kiss his mother again which stood until he was adult.  He talks about his transistor radio that he would turn on when his patents were fighting.

Seth's early adulthood is the next main feature of the film. These years were mainly spent alone and when not writing Gallant would go for extensive walks paying attention to the most mundane things. On one walk he comes across someone weekly garbage stopping to listen a disregarded greeting card playing for he's a jolly good fellow. Another a regular walk through a series of garbage dumpsters arrange in a circle where Seth used to state his current thoughts out loud.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspects of the film are Seth's hobbies that could be stand alone careers on their own.  He is building a town in his basement out of cardboard boxes.  He paints and often puts on marionette shows. Seth admits that he is one for nostalgia looking to a golden past. Then there is his daily routine. Starting with an 8:00 wake followed by starting work in his basement studio at 9:00 all the way to his serious evening writing between 8:30 and 11 or 11:30 P.M. He takes time out for dinner with his wife between 6 and 7 plus a nap at 7:00 because after all he is a fifty-year-old man.

Seth's Dominion is an eventful study of the personal quirks and activities of an artistic mind. The directors capture Seth's unconventional personality, traits and take on everyday life.  They delve in detail into his method to produce his craft. Seth is an intriguing character with many layers that could have filled a production twice as long. But as he states in the end he will not do another documentary on himself again. It's  a film that I can recommend.

*** Out of 4.

Seth's Dominion | Luc Chamberland | Canada | 2014 \ 42 Minutes.

Tags; Cartoonist, Graphic Novel, Loner, Quirk, Guelph, Strathroy, Nostalgia.